The Marion Affordable Housing Trust met on Tuesday, August 12 to discuss active cases involving housing projects around town, more specifically, at the former Lockheed Martin site immediately south of the Cushing Community Center and the neighboring developments off the ocean side of Route 6 at the Wareham town line.
Reorganization of the board was also on the agenda, but the trust decided to wait until member Toby Ast is present before voting on the current positioning of the body.
On updates of housing projects, member Norm Hills explained Matthew Zuker has sold his property on 78 Wareham Road to the multi-billion-dollar national Toll Brothers, Inc, whom he said is “talking about getting started.”
The most-recent iteration of Zuker’s former proposal was a 48-unit, market-rate, village-style development (36 detached residences and 12 townhouses) nestled in between the Weweantic River and Heron Cove Estates (developer Ken Steen’s planned, 120-unit, affordable-housing rental development).
Though Heron Cove Estates was green-lighted by the state and the town via negotiations with the Select Board as a Local Initiative Program (670CMR) and vetted by the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals, the project remains at a standstill.
In his update to the Affordable Housing Trust, Hills said Steen was “still in the legal ramifications – nothing. Nothing’s changed there.” He later stated the Toll Brothers may be interested in that site as well.
Regarding Paul Downing’s project at the former Lockheed Martin site, Hills stated he has not received any updates or heard anything. He did mention Town House employees are currently busy moving to the Town House Annex, which could explain the information gap.
The trust discussed high home costs and whether it would be possible to get in contact with organizations like Habitat for Humanity or veterans’ groups for the construction of affordable housing, though this was left to future discussion.
Near the beginning of the meeting, after the approval of minutes from previous meetings, Hills questioned the balance of the budget, pointing out a budget item of $3,340.23. He questioned whether the money was “CPC” (allocated by the Community Preservation Committee), to which the other members of the trust stated it was not, adding there is nothing attached to the money restricting its use by the trust. It was stated the money is not CPC and is part of the trust’s budget, though its exact origin was not pinpointed. Some members suggested the funds likely came from work on Little Neck Village.
The body went over social-media usage and outreach, and what the best platform would be. They said the Town of Marion needs consistency and more online visibility, which they said they will further discuss at their next meeting. The trust also said they will look for updates on current projects to discuss at their next meeting.
The next meeting of the Marion Affordable Housing Trust is currently scheduled for Tuesday, September 9 at 6:00 pm at the Marion Police Station.
Marion Affordable Housing Trust
By Sam Bishop